


Nontrivial Pursuits

by gubabuba, senlinyu



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Co-workers, Digital Art, Digital Painting, F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Librarians, Ministry of Magic Employee Draco Malfoy, Ministry of Magic Employee Hermione Granger, NSFW Art, POV Draco Malfoy, Partial Nudity, Pining Draco Malfoy, Post-War, Romantic Fluff, Strip Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gubabuba/pseuds/gubabuba, https://archiveofourown.org/users/senlinyu/pseuds/senlinyu
Summary: Draco had a plan: reach the end of his probation, get promoted, and finally ask Granger out.Unfortunately, as his supervisor in the Ministry Archive, Granger seemed to be resistant to all Draco’s ideas on principle. The last thing he expected her to go along with was a trivia strip competition, and yet, somehow, here they were.“Do you have to?” Granger’s voice was sharp and jumped slightly at the last syllable.Draco glanced up and found that she was staring at him, the hollows of her cheeks a faint pink. He unfastened the cuff on his left sleeve without looking down and watched the pink transform into a stunning shade of red as he folded the fabric up to his elbow. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and bit down on it visibly.“Have to what?” he said with a lazy grin.She made an incomprehensible noise somewhere in the base of her throat and looked away. “You’ll be losing your shirt soon enough anyway, I don’t know why you need to bother rolling up your sleeves.”
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 65
Kudos: 1216
Collections: Draimone Fics, July - September Mad Frankenstein Fest 2020, Shamelessbyaurora, finished 2020





	Nontrivial Pursuits

**Author's Note:**

> Art and fic collaboration for the Dept of FanFiction’s MadFrankenstein Dramione Co-workers Fest.
> 
> Prompt: Librarians.

* * *

“Granger, I didn’t expect you to show up.”

She was standing poised in the doorway, silhouetted by the light in the corridor. She stayed frozen a moment longer before her heel clicked against the floor and she stepped into the room and let the door swing shut behind her. 

With the corridor light streaming through the blurred glass behind her, Draco couldn’t make her features out clearly, but he could tell her lips were pursed and her eyes narrowed as she stood there, hands defiantly on her hips.

A thrill of anticipation raced down his back. He leaned forwards and couldn’t help but tsk his tongue. “What would your friends think if they learned you were sneaking into a government building on a dare?”

She sniffed and reached up to unclasp her cape. The heavy wool slipped down off her shoulders in a way that sent a shiver through his gut. 

“I’ve broken more rules and laws than you ever have, Malfoy.”

“True.” He leaned back, tossing a heavy fountain pen into the air so that it flipped end over end several times before landing in his palm. “I have always thrived in the grey zone of technicality, while you have always been unapologetically blatant about violating rules you disagree with. And yet I’m the reprobate and you’re the Wizarding world’s model citizen.”

Something unreadable flickered briefly in Granger’s eyes before she shrugged. “I suppose the difference is that at best you’re guided by ethics rather than morals.”

He tapped the end of his pen lightly on the desk and then laid it aside when he realised he was twiddling. He was trying not to look as nervous or as eager as he currently felt as he stared at her. He refrained from asking about the morality of sneaking into the Ministry Archive after hours on a dare.

She was still wearing the same robes she’d worn when she left for the day. He’d rather expected she would change, or add layers. Maybe she was confident about winning. His tongue darted out to wet his lips as he stood. 

She glanced around. “So... how are we supposed to do this when there’s only the two of us?”

He gestured around himself at the countless rows of shelves that disappeared into the darkness. “This is the Ministry Archive, given you’re the Archivist and I’m your favourite assistant, I assumed we could summon any books we need for verification in our trivia competition.” 

Granger nodded, looking contemplative. 

Draco’s mouth twitched but he schooled his expression to maintain an outward appearance of passivity. “Questioning will alternate. You can’t ask a question you don’t know the answer to. First, you’ll ask a question, and I answer. If my answer is correct, we move on and I ask. If I’m wrong, you correct me and we’ll verify. If either of person is found wrong, they lose an article of clothing. The person to run out of clothing first loses.”

“And then?” Granger raised an eyebrow. 

“If I win, you will go to our superiors and recommend my promotion from assistant to senior archivist.” He bowed with a flourish. 

He’d been asking for a promotion for months, ever since he’d reached the end his probation and finally been eligible for more than the mandatory supervised employment he’d been serving for the last two years. 

Granger had been resistant to the idea. 

Draco sometimes felt that she was simply resistant to all things on principle. Her attitude towards him when he first arrived as her assistant had been positively glacial. Eventually, they both warmed to each other, in their own ways. Granger was hardly the easiest supervisor, however, she'd been fiercely protective in response to any harassment that anyone tried to direct towards Draco for not rotting in prison the way everyone apparently wanted him to. 

Draco had, in turn, grown more attached to Granger than she had probably intended him to. 

Much more attached. 

Unfortunately, Granger disapproved of relationships between workplace superiors and their subordinates. She found them unethical. And probably immoral too. 

Draco had resigned himself and bided his time, scheming, until his probation was over and he would be eligible for promotion. Then there’d be no reason he couldn’t date her. 

Except his probation was over and Granger refused to promote him. 

He’d been badgering and hinting to her about the promotion for two months and getting nowhere. When he off-handedly dared her to promote him if he could prove he knew he archive better than her, he never thought she’d agree. Yet here they were. 

A strip trivia competition felt like it would be approximately as unethical as dating a subordinate, but perhaps there was a distinction that was eluding Draco. He’d never prided himself on the accuracy of his moral compass.

If this error in judgment gave Draco the opportunity to watch her voluntarily strip for him, he’d gladly drop his remaining traces of ethics into a volcano. 

Granger drew her wand, shooting a quick privacy spell at the door. 

“Did you get the potions?”

She nodded primly and pulled two vials of potion from a pocket. “Honesty potion. I don’t see why we need them. Can’t we just agree not to lie?”

Gryffindor. 

Draco nearly rolled his eyes as he plucked a vial from her hand and studied it. “That wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.”

Granger snorted. “Yes. There’s nothing as fun as turning luminous green.”

“Only if you decide to lie.” Draco wagged his eyebrows and downed his vial, grimacing as he felt it tingle across the surface of his skin. The potion stuck unpleasantly to the surface of his tongue and he gagged. 

Granger was swallowing her own and looked slightly green already. She conjured a glass of water. “Right. Let’s get this over with.” 

Draco bowed and ushered her deeper into the stacks with a suggestive leer. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep your cape on? I won’t hold it against you.”

She shot a quick glare over her shoulder. “I doubt that will be necessary.” 

Draco gave a low laugh and allowed his eyes to wander down her back as he followed her, admiring the way her hips moved beneath the fitted fabric of her robes. 

Her stockings had a seam running down the back of each slender leg, and the sight of it never failed to make Draco’s mind temporarily stall as his eyes followed the line from the backs of her sensible oxfords up to the place they disappeared beneath her skirts. Sometimes she would forget to use her wand with reaching for a book, and he’d come around the corner to find her standing of her toes, the length of her body pressed against a shelf, and her skirt riding up an inch or two higher than usual, giving Draco a glimpse of her thighs and revealing that the tantalising lines ran up further to somewhere Draco hadn’t yet seen. 

He’d spend a fair amount of his time guessing though. 

“Well, I don’t want to be accused of having an unfair advantage,” Draco unbuttoned his robes and slid them off, draping them over his arm. He reached into a pocket for his reading glasses and slipped them on, eying Granger over the rims. 

Her expression tightened, her lips pursing as she glanced away. 

There was definitely something there, he was positive he wasn’t imagining things. He couldn’t understand why Granger wouldn’t just promote him so that he could ravish her against a bookshelf the way he was dying to. Then again, there were many things about Granger that failed to add up, such as why a witch some of the best NEWTS in history and an Order of Merlin First Class was working as a glorified librarian in the Ministry's Archive.

It was Draco's intention to unravel all of her secrets, slowly, over years. First he would get promoted, then he would kiss her, then he would date her and get to work convincing her to get a better job. He had a whole campaign planned out.

He unfastened the cuff of the right sleeve of his dress shirt and slowly rolled it up, baring his forearm to just below his elbow. He paused, carefully smoothing away any wrinkles. 

“Do you have to?” Granger’s voice was sharp and jumped slightly at the last syllable. 

Draco glanced up and found that she was staring at him, the hollows of her cheeks a faint pink. He unfastened the cuff on his left sleeve without looking down and watched the pink transform into a stunning shade of red as he folded the fabric up to his elbow. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and bit down on it visibly.

“Have to what?” he said with a lazy grin. 

She made an incomprehensible noise somewhere in the base of her throat and looked away. “You’ll be losing your shirt soon enough anyway, I don’t know what you need to bother rolling up your sleeves.”

“Well, I don’t want to catch any pages on my cuffs,” he said, lowering his lashes demurely. He instantly began to glow bright green. 

Granger gave an undignified snort of laughter and began sliding down a bench behind a reading table.

“No!” Draco said, interrupting her when she was halfway seated. 

She froze and raised an eyebrow. 

“You can’t sit there like that.”

She looked down and then back up. “Why not?”

“Because,” Draco dragged the table away and shoved it against a nearby bookshelf before looking back and smirking at her, “I want to see all of you — “ his eyes trailed down her body, “ — when you lose.”

Something indecipherable rippled across her face as she dropped down onto the bench. “Right. How could I have forgotten,” she said dryly. 

“If you’ll scoot about two feet left, the lighting is better,” Draco said with a grin as he dragged away another table and seated himself on the bench across from her. While he was rearranging the furniture, she slid dramatically down the bench and then slipped a hair tie off her wrist, using it to gather all her curls into an unruly knot on the top of her head, a sign she was getting down to business. 

“Ladies first,” Draco said when she finished. 

She rolled her eyes, inhaled, and then cocked her head to the side. “What year was Urg the Unclean born?”

The quizzing started slowly. Granger initially stuck to a variety of obscure but highly specific questions, as though she were testing the breadth of Draco’s knowledge before going in for the kill. Draco, on the other hand, started with broad questions and then unapologetically cited her for failing to include incredibly minor details. 

Granger lost her jacket and both shoes in quick succession. 

She was visibly annoyed at that and abruptly pivoted from interrogating him about various Wizarding fields to barraging him with questions about the tea harvesting and the life cycles of marsupials. Draco proceeded to lose his waistcoat for being unable to recite which varieties of green tea were cultivated for higher chlorophyll levels, his shoes because wombats had cubed faeces, and his socks when he didn’t know wombats had backwards facing pouches. 

He tried to argue that none of that information was relevant to the archive, but Granger just smugly summoned several books from shelves on muggle tea cultivation and Australian wildlife. 

“Why do you know so much about wombats?” He scowled as he peeled his socks off.

“I think they’re cute,” she said with a sniff. 

They volleyed after that for a long time. Books were flying rapidly off the shelves as they argued technicalities and pointed to citations and eventually they were both surrounded by piles of books, and neither of them had lost a single article of clothing for over an hour. 

Then Granger finally lost her shirt because she forgot one of the Lichtensteinian warlocks who opposed the appointment of Supreme Mugwump Pierre Bonaccord. 

She unbuttoned it so slowly that Draco thought he might suffer a heart attack as he sat, watching her unfasten one button after the next and the narrow strip of pale skin was slowly revealed. 

She was wearing a wine red bra and Draco nearly excused himself to use the washroom as her shirt slipped off her shoulders because the sight of her tits cupped in lace had him instantly and indecently hard. The fabric of the bra was somewhat but not entirely transparent, just enough to see a hint of her nipples through it. Fuck. His throat tightened, and his mouth watered, and all he could do was sit staring and wondering was how her breasts might feel cupped in his hands, the weight against his palms, and how soft they’d be; whether they were sensitive and, if they were, what kind of noises she might make if he touched them. 

He gripped an encyclopedia of aquatic herbology in front of his lap to conceal the fact that his erection was currently straining to escape the confines of his trousers. 

She asked him a question about maritime signal flags while he was still staring and Draco said something completely incoherent about pirates in reply. 

He could have taken off his tie, but he decided to remove his shirt instead, returning the favour by taking it off as slowly as she had. He met her eyes the entire time and made sure to keep his shoulders squared so that she got to fully appreciate just what would be at her disposal if she were ever so inclined.

Her eyes grew visibly dark as she watched, her eyes running down and lingering on the scars on his chest and stomach. Interesting. He hadn’t considered scars a selling point. He should have invented an excuse to mention them sooner. 

She crossed her legs tightly and looked away after a minute. 

Draco steeled himself as he stared at her. 

He had to win. This situation between them was no longer tenable. There was no way he could carry on if he lost and Granger continued to refuse to have him promoted. In that case, he’d just have to quit and ask her out then. He wasn’t required to maintain Ministry supervised employment any longer now that his probation was over; his mother reminded him of that daily. 

The only reason he’d stayed on at the Archive was because it was an excuse to be near Granger. If he lost and she kept refusing to promote him, he'd just had to alter his plans. 

He forced himself to stop admiring the curve of her shoulders, the way her tits looked nestled in her bra, and the nip of her waist. 

He occluded away how extremely aroused he was and focused the entirety of his attention on interrogating Granger about the most obscure information he could think of. 

She lost her stockings next. Then her skirt. 

Draco lost his trousers while gaping over the fact her knickers matched her bra. 

Granger's cheeks flushed and she bit her lip, her eyes flicking down surreptitiously in the direction of his drawers. Draco was keeping a book permanently blocking his erection at that point while pretending to reference it. There was no good letting her see was a deliriously superior advantage she currently had over him. 

Then she lost her bra. 

As Draco sat, mouth ajar, as her lips curved into a sly smile and she twisted an arm up behind her back. The band around her ribs loosened. As he sat, trying not to shift or adjust his painfully hard erection, it suddenly became glaringly obvious that Granger was not trying to win. 

In fact, she was letting him win. 

Which was fucking offensive. 

For one thing, Draco did not need anyone to let him win. But secondarily, it begged many questions, specifically questions about why she hadn’t just promoted him as he had very politely requested dozens of times. Why did they need to have a strip trivia competition at all? 

Not that he minded discovering that she was indeed utterly delectable in lingerie, but nothing made sense about the situation. 

Granted it was difficult to think critically about anything when Granger was taking off her bra in front of him. 

The straps slipped down off her shoulders and Draco swallowed as the cups slipped away and bared her breasts. Circe. Her tits were perfect. Just the right size to fit in his hands. Her nipples were a pinkish brown, small and pert and Draco wanted to take them in his mouth and taste them. 

He swallowed thickly and felt himself grow so warm his glasses fogged up as she sat, bra dangling from a fingertip, meeting his stare without even blushing. 

“Why — “ his voice wouldn’t seem to work. He adjusted his glasses so he could see over them and tried again. “Why do you work here?” 

He hadn’t intended to ask that question, he blinked as it escaped him

The smile on her face vanished and her bra slipped from her finger and fell to the floor. “What?”

Draco swallowed staring at her in blank horror. He’d planned to ask her that question once they were in a relationship, he’d planned to ask then. To point out that she could do much better, that a job that a former Death Eater could hold was not nearly good enough for her. 

Well. Too late. His incoherently aroused mind had apparently elected for sabotage. 

He was dead now, he might as well bury himself. 

He squared his shoulders. “You could have done anything after school, but you’re here. You’re — a librarian. This position isn’t getting you anywhere. Why do you even work here?”

There was a pause as Granger sat staring at him. Then she looked down. “Well, I like books.” 

A green glow suffused itself across her skin. She noticed it and blushed bright red. She gnawed her lip for a moment. 

“It was — “ she was choosing her words carefully, “ — it was the best way to accomplish a goal I had.” She didn’t turn green as she spoke, and she gave a small sigh of relief. 

“Right,” Draco said, his voice dry. “What goal was that?”

She shot a glare at him and shifted in a way that would have seemed prim if she were wearing more than knickers. “I don’t see how any of this is possibly pertinent to the competition.”

Draco leaned forward, raising an eyebrow. “Call it idle curiosity. I have been called self-absorbed more often than I care to count and I don’t deny the label has its merits, but I’d have to be delusional not to notice that you can do better than this. You were the best in our year, you have an Order of Merlin, you could have gotten any job you wanted after the war. Granger, why on earth are you the Ministry’s archivist?”

She inhaled, and Draco had to force his eyes to stay locked on her face and not dart down to watch the way her tits rose. 

“Do you really want to know?” She looked doubtful. 

“Yes. I really do,” he said, meeting her eyes.

She sighed and looked away. “Well, you know, the terms of your probation required that you have a job supervised by a Ministry employee. Obviously, that required you to be employed in the Ministry, but as an ex-Death Eater, you’re barred from holding most government positions. Ministry archivist was the only one you qualified for. So,” she shrugged, “here we are.”

Draco stared. “What?” 

No. She could not possibly be suggesting what he thought she was suggesting. 

He tried again. “What?”

“It was unfair,” she said, crossing her arms, her eyes flashing. “They were saying that as a minor you would be able to avoid Azkaban if you could demonstrate good behaviour and hold a job for two years, but then they deliberately arranged it to make it almost impossible. So... I took the job here in the Archive so I could hire you.”

“No,” Draco said flatly. “No. You did not. You wouldn’t — that would have been idiotic — “ 

Draco was wracking his mind, trying to remember his arrival at the Archive two years previous. Granger’s glacial reception. She’d made it abundantly clear that she’d had no choice but to take him as her assistant. 

He’d interpreted that to mean it was an involuntary arrangement for her. 

He stared at her, feeling as though he’d been punched in the gut. “I wasn’t even — back then — I’d never even been nice to you. I — “

She snorted derisively, cutting him off. “You really don’t seem to understand how the concept of fairness works. It wasn’t anything personal. They were claiming leniency while setting you up to fail, even though they admitted that you had taken the Dark Mark under duress while a minor.”

She looked indignant . 

“I just gave you an opportunity.” She tossed her head and sat back as though there was nothing notable about taking a dead-end job for two years for the sake of social justice. “If you hadn’t made any effort here, I wasn’t going to protect you. I just thought you deserved to have the opportunity that the Ministry said they were giving you. The war ruined so many people’s lives. It felt wrong not to give you a chance.”

“But — “ Draco’s mouth was opening and closing and he felt as though someone had confunded him. “You took this job specifically to hire me?”

“Yes,” she said, looking impatient that he was still stuck on that point. 

“You gave up two years just to keep me out of Azkaban?”

She rolled her eyes. “As I said, it was unfair what they were doing. I couldn’t let them throw you in Azkaban like that. It wasn’t right. I would have done it for anyone.”

That was both consoling and depressing at the same time.

Draco sat bewildered as he continued to gape at her. 

Granger continued speaking, oblivious to his internal crisis. 

“Now that you’re off probation, I can get a different job,” she said with a grin and then she noticed him staring and rolled her eyes. “Stop looking at me like you think you’re responsible for ruining my life. It was my choice, it’s not like anyone asked me to do it. Besides, I like the Archive, it might not be the best springboard for a legal career, but the largest government library and archive is hardly a bad place to work.”

“I think I need a minute,” he said, standing up. He wanted to go find a washroom and — he wasn’t sure what he’d do once he got there. 

His feet were cold. He looked down and realised he wasn’t wearing anything but his drawers and a tie. 

He stood staring at his feet. 

“Draco, are you alright?”

He looked up. Granger was looking at him with visible concern.

His mouth opened and closed several times as he tried to explain what he was currently feeling. “Why — why — why won’t you promote me?”

He didn’t know why that question still mattered at all in light of everything else, but somehow he found himself clinging to it. 

Now she blushed. 

“Oh. Well, the Archive isn’t budgeted for two archivists, I’m not even supposed to have an assistant, really. It took a lot of fighting with accounting to even manage it. I was originally going to step down here and transfer to the DRCMC as soon as your probation ended. That was my plan.“ Her cheeks stained a deeper shade of red. “But then, working here with you, you weren’t what I expected. Not even a little bit, and then when you asked me out and I had to explain that I wouldn’t date a subordinate — everyone kept telling me not to believe you meant any of it, that it was all an act so I’d give you good job reviews.”

Draco’s stomach clenched. “I see.” 

That would explain why she was always resistant to everything. Nobody trusted him, not even her. 

Draco’s day had spiralled in record time. 

“But,” her pointed tone cut through his sense of desolation, “I didn’t believe it, so when your probation ended, I decided to stay on a little longer, to see.”

Draco’s head shot up. “You did?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I did.”

“And...?” Draco’s heart was beginning to pound and his stomach was both fluttering and twisting at the same time. He didn’t think it was probably healthy to experience such a broad spectrum of emotions in such a small window of time. 

“I have concluded you do have ulterior motives,” Granger said, looking up at him with a serious expression. 

“What?” He croaked the word. 

What ulterior motives could she possibly imagine he had involving the Ministry Archive?

She nodded. “Over the last several weeks and the course of this evening, I have been observing you and I am certain the real reason you have continued to work here is borne from an excessive desire to get into my knickers.” As she spoke, she ran a finger along the waistband said knickers.

“Well — “ Draco choked. When she put it like that...

“The truth is,” she stood up from the bench, “today was my last day at the Archive. You’ll be getting an owl this weekend letting you know you’ve been promoted, and I’m no longer your supervisor.”

Draco stared at her and suddenly he was aroused again. “Really?”

“Yes. Although I’ll probably still come here regularly, for research, you know. The Archive is such an underutilised resource.” Her expression was coy. 

Draco’s heart was beginning to race. “But you won’t work in this department? You're not my superior any more?” 

She shook her head. 

“So, if I ask you on a date, you'd say?”

Her eyes glittered. “Yes.”

Draco moved towards her, closing the distance between them. “If I want to kiss you, would you let me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you try and find out?”

He caught her by the waist and pulled her close. Before his lips found hers, her arms were around his shoulders, fingers tangling in his hair and she kissed him first.

Her lips were fiery, and her bare skin under his hands was silk. He groaned and pulled her closer, kissing her back. 

He’d waited very patiently to kiss her. Ages. Ages and ages.

His hands were roaming everywhere, mapping out her curves beneath his fingers, pulling her body hard against his. He could feel her gorgeous tits pressed against his chest and slid a hand up to cup one in his palm without breaking his lips away from hers. 

She moaned, and then pushed him backwards, still kissing him, until he ran into a bench and nearly tripped over it. Granger didn’t falter, she shoved him down and climbed up on top of him, straddling his hips. 

Minx. He’d been planning this for years, and now she was kissing him like it was all her idea. 

He tangled a hand in her hair in order to gain some control over the kiss, holding her in place so he could ravish her mouth to his heart’s content, kissing her thoroughly while his fingers committed to memory the dips and rises and curves and softness of her body against his until she was making a variety of soft whimpers and keening noises against his lips. 

Finally, he pulled back, breathing raggedly. She was panting and her lips and cheeks were red. 

As soon as he managed to catch his breath, he said, “If I want to fuck you against a bookshelf in this Archive, would you say yes?”

Her eyes grew darker as she stared down at him.

“I don’t see why not. The Archive isn’t my jurisdiction now. I don’t make the rules.“ Her mouth curved into a sly grin. “Speaking of rules, I did give the wrong answer when you asked why I worked here, doesn't that mean I need to take my knickers off?”

Her fingers trailed suggestively down to her hips. She was still kneeling over him, her thighs bracketing his. Before she could push the lace down, Draco caught her hands and drew them away. 

“You forgot this.” He reached up and found the tie holding her hair back, with a quick tug it came loose and her curls cascaded down around her shoulders. He bit his lip as he stared up at her.

He slid his own hands around her hips, slipping a thumb under the band as he arched her closer. She shivered and her fingers curled around his shoulder.

He tilted his head back to meet her eyes. “These, I want to remove myself.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find SenLinYu on [ instagram](https://instagram.com/senlinyuwrites) and [tumblr](https://senlinyu.tumblr.com).
> 
> Find sleeplessai on [tumblr](https://gubabubas-sketchbook.tumblr.com).
> 
> Comments and kudos are love. 💕


End file.
